Desktop DBMS role shifting; move under way to grab server DBMS ground - database management system - Field Report

Software Magazine, August, 1992 by Elizabeth U. Harding

Move under way to grab server DBMS ground

Desktop database management systems can play an important role in a corporate client/server enterprise, observe industry analysts.

PC technology will continue performing its traditional function as a standalone tool for end-user application development on local platforms, but these observers also see it adding a new role. "The desktop database is becoming an intermediary between the end user and the larger system databases," said Neal Hill, a senior analyst at Forrester Research, Inc. in Cambridge, Mass.

Chris LeTocq, a research analyst at InfoCorp, Santa Clara, Calif., also surmised that desktop databases will perform more as a front end to remote data. "They provide you with the ability to integrate the remote data with information you have locally," he explained.

"While desktop database products will continue to provide basic functionality for standalone applications, they will also give you a desktop view into the distributed corporate database structure," added Michael Heylin, senior associate at Creative Strategies in Santa Clara, Calif. "There's a definite advantage from a corporate MIS perspective to use front-end-type products that users are familiar with to access new server-based applications or client/server-type data repositories."

Since the industry moved toward connected environments with larger-scale data management capabilities, it is not only the role of Xbases--dBase-compatible technology -- that has changed. The former top players, Ashton-Tate Corp., Fox Software, Inc. and Nantucket Corp., have all been acquired by larger vendors offering multiuser database management systems (DBMSs).

Scotts Valley, Calif.-based Borland International, Inc. started the consolidation moves last year by acquiring long-struggling Ashton-Tate and dBase, the clear leader in the desktop DBMS market. That move was followed earlier this year by Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp.'s acquisition of Fox and the FoxPro DBMS. Then Computer Associates International, Inc., Islandia, N.Y., bought Nantucket and its Clipper DBMS.

SERVER TECHNOLOGY GAP

As the two worlds collide -- more powerful desktop systems taking on downsized large systems -- many observers say the middle ground of server DBMSs remains open. Each of these firms can be expected to take advantage of the opening by linking their own server DBMSs to the desktop offerings.

"There's been a technology gap in the server," said Ben Tandowski, president of consulting firm Professional Computer Solutions, Inc. (PCSI), Teaneck, N.J. "Original SQL servers didn't take into account the PC client capabilities we are using today."

With a tradition in PC desktop features, Borland also gained a place in the server database market with the Ashton-Tate acquisition. The acquired Interbase DBMS offering prompted Borland to create the Online Complex Processing (OLCP) strategy directly from the Interbase Binary Large Objects (Blob) technology.

Rob Dickerson, Borland's vice president of product management for the Applications Business Unit, said OLCP differs from Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) by providing support for long-duration, complex transaction that include reads and updates.

"There are limitations to how many people you can add to a network; there are security and performance problems" with PC DBMS technology, added David Watkins, director of product marketing for database products at Borland. "With a database server, you have more security and you can send over only the files needed, as opposed to the whole database when using LANs. We are merging the benefits of PC-style computing with centrally stored data."

The strategy centers around the Borland Object Component Architecture (Boca), which aims to integrate all Borland desktop products around a core set of database functionality in the Microsoft Windows environment. According to Borland, the Windows versions of dBase and Paradox will provide a common database engine.

Unlike Borland, Microsoft does not have its own server database, but resells the SQL Server from Sybase Inc., Emeryville, Calif.

Meanwhile, Computer Associates has its own idea of what constitutes desktop DBMS nirvana. In a recent statement of direction, CA said its future desktop offering, code-named Aspen, will include an object-oriented language, a native code compiler, an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), DBF-style (dBase file extensions) as well as client/server databases.

"We have two parallel migration paths that will get you to client/server and graphical object-oriented programming," said Marc Sokol, CA's director of product strategy for desktop products. The migration paths to Aspen are an object-oriented route through CA-Clipper and a GUI route through CA-dBFast, with Windows support.

Computer Associates, which is wooing corporate dBase and FoxPro users to migrate to Aspen, maintains it is well positioned in the desktop database market, with ample experience in multiple platforms.

The server editions of CA-Clipper and Aspen run on OS/2-based systems. Mixed hardware environments will be supported with VAX/VMS-and/or Unix-based servers.